KHARKIV OBLAST, UKRAINE, May 8 — Yesterday, near the village of Pylna in the Lyptsi community, the Ukrainian Defense Forces detected and fought off a Russian subversive reconnaissance group, reported the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the morning report.
The Kharkiv Oblast Governor, Oleh Syniehubov, told Suspilne that the group’s purpose was reconnaissance. “We detected [the sabotage group] last week and reported it. It’s possible that groups like this one will try to [cross the border] again.”
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Russian troops are moving to the Kursk region and preparing units for a possible offensive on Kharkiv. However, ISW, as well as Ukrainian intelligence, believe that the Russians do not have enough forces to take the city.
Russia had already tried to occupy Kharkiv at the beginning of the full-scale invasion but was stopped by Ukrainian forces. They occupied most of the Kharkiv region, but Ukrainian troops liberated the majority of the Kharkiv Oblast during the Kharkiv counteroffensive in the autumn of 2022.
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- Over the past day, the Russian army tried to advance 16 times in the Kupiansk direction. Russians attacked Synkivka, Pishchane, and Berestove in the Kharkiv Oblast, reported the General Staff in a morning briefing.
- Russians drop a 1,500-kilogram bomb on a village in the Kharkiv region, killing an 88-year-old woman. Ukrainian police say it’s the first documented case of Russians using a gliding modification of the FAB-1500 bomb in the region.
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